Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 000 Mark
| Issuer | Stadt Düsseldorf (City of Düsseldorf) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 000 Marks (500 000) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed note in black on cream paper with a geometric honeycomb watermark underprint. A central vignette presents a detailed architectural elevation of Düsseldorf's Old Town Hall (Rathaus), flanked on both sides by the denomination numeral '500000 MARK' and the issuer legend 'STADT: DUSSELDORF'. The series designation 'REIHE: II' appears at lower left, with the date '15. August 1923' and a facsimile signature of the Oberbürgermeister at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in black on cream paper with a honeycomb watermark underprint. The denomination numeral '500000' is set in large spaced figures across the upper field, with the crowned Düsseldorf lion heraldic vignette centred between the digits. A double rule band below carries the legend 'FÜNFHUNDERTTAUSEND MARK' in bold letterpress, and a smaller text line at foot cites the authorising ordinance of the Reichsfinanzministerium. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Düsseldorf was under French and Belgian military occupation during the Rhineland crisis when this note was issued, which complicated — and in some cases delayed — local emergency currency production. The city was among hundreds of German municipalities forced into notgeld issuance as Reichsbank currency became functionally worthless during the hyperinflation peak of 1923, when the mark's collapse accelerated so fast that denominations issued one week were already too small to be useful the next.
The watermarked paper is one of the few concessions to anti-counterfeiting at a moment when forgery was almost economically irrational — by the time a fake note circulated, its face value had often already been wiped out by inflation.